The architecture specialist had never professionally photographed a person before—until he linked up with Tyler and GQ Style.

Before shooting Tyler, the Creator, for the cover of this magazine, Matthieu Venot had never taken a professional photograph of a person. “In the beginning, I refused. This is a very big deal—I don't do portraits!” he recalls from his home in Brest, France. Matthieu's preferred subjects are instead slices of banal urban landscapes: an abandoned gas station, a column of identical balconies, a lonely ladder. His eye for Instagram-friendly hues in otherwise drab cities has turned him into something of a sensation in the past year.

But the 34-year-old self taught photographer was still surprised to receive a DM on Instagram from Tyler himself, after Tyler used one of Matthieu’s photos as the cover of his Kids See Ghosts remix “Crust in Their Eyes.” “He told me, ‘If it’s a problem, let me know and I can take it down, but I thought it would be cool to use and wanted to show people your amazing work,’ says Matthieu. “I was so happy, I love his world. He is so unique!”

A week later, when Tyler suggested Matthieu for the cover shoot to those of us here at GQ Style, the only person who needed convincing was Matthieu himself. “I love challenges, and I realized this was an opportunity that only happens once in a lifetime,” he says. “But I didn't sleep for two weeks.” We picked two locations that naturally appealed to Matthieu's sense of geometry and color: Hôtel Molitor and the Pierre and Marie Curie University campus, both in Paris. The Molitor's original pool was the place to see and be seen in the Art Deco era; reopened in 2014, it's like a little Venot-ian paradise in the 16th Arrondissement.

As for how Matthieu should approach his very first fashion photographs, Tyler had this advice on set: “Just shoot me like you would shoot a building.” To see the result, check out our cover story here.